You may have had the same experience I've had many times. I see a photo of a beautiful rose on the HMF website, I click on the "Buy from" link, and I find to my dismay that the rose is available only from Ludwig's Roses in South Africa.

Well, here's some great news: Ludwig's has opened a branch in Phoenix, Arizona. The website is still a work in progress, but here's a link to it in its current, unfinished state:

http://www.ludwigsroses.com/sh...

From what I've heard, the roses will be grafted, either on Dr. Huey or on multiflora. Two-day shipping will be free anywhere in the United States. The prices ($22.99-$26.99) are about the same as you'd pay for a band from some of the own-root nurseries, and they would tack on a shipping charge and sometimes a handling charge.

The website must not have been proofread yet because there are a lot of typos. The rose called Myth, for example, is actually called Myrthe. If you look these up, be sure to check for all of the names. Many roses have unique names in South Africa, and you don't want to buy a rose you might already have. There's one here called Arctic Ice, for example, that's a rare beauty.

http://www.ludwigsroses.com/sh...

It's the same rose we know as La Rose du Petit Prince, however, which some of us bought as Le Petit Prince from Palatine this year.



The selection so far includes many Delbard roses, which is a very good thing, and some Barni roses. I love Barni roses!

The website is growing quickly. This morning it had 4 pages of roses for sale, but now there are already 7 full pages and the start of an 8th.

I don't know when they'll be ready to open for business, but I'm sure it will be soon. I'm enjoying watching the website grow.

This will be interesting to watch and see what they have to offer.
I went and looked at their site, and like you said it's got some typo's etc. but the descriptions are vague and no zone particulars listed...but hopefully they'll address all of that.
Does this mean everything they ship will be in bands or bare root or both...depending on the time of year ?

The website says: "Ludwig’s Roses, est. 1971, is the largest container-grown-rose nursery." They're grafted roses, so they'll be too big for bands. They'll be growing in larger containers, but I don't know whether they'll be shipped in those containers. It'll be interesting to find out.

The descriptions are vague, but maybe they'll be fleshed out. The height descriptions make me laugh: "above head height," "hip height," "shoulder height," etc. Whose shoulder? Whose hip? Your shoulder's more than a foot higher than mine JD, so that's vague in the extreme.

Regarding the descriptions, that's exactly what I was thinking ! LOL

Zuzu ...

When I talked with Kim about Ludwigs the other day, he told me that the roses would not be bands, but would be container roses. The roses are going to be produced in Canada, but distributed out of Arizona.

As for the measurements, I think it has to do with the metric measurement system vs the US measurement system. The heights they are using are probably what they see in South Africa which is similar to Socal. They are probably over-stated for more northern gardens.

To me, the interesting thing is that they may be carrying a lot of roses that have never been available in the US or are no longer in commerce in the US.

No one has any info about the quality of the plants.

I knew they wouldn't be bands, Lyn. A grafted rose wouldn't fit into a band. I only mentioned bands because the own-root nurseries are now selling their bands for about the same price. I can't imagine paying $21.95 plus postage for a little band rose (which probably would be mislabeled) from Rogue Valley.

Metric measurements would be more useful than "shoulder height" unless they specify the height of the shoulder's owner.

If you have a look at their ZA site: http://www.ludwigsroses.co.za/...
there are small pictograms - the one for Arctic Ice (La Rose du Petit Prince) gives the height at 1.8-2m. But if they are refering to those measurement as shoulder height - that is one big guy!!!

Just as a matter of interest, HMF gives the height of La Rose du Petit Prince at 1.5m which is also the height stated by the nursery where I got mine. Right now, this rose has reached 160cm in my garden after only two seasons.

That's a great link, sunnyvalley. It's a good idea to use the ZA catalogue in conjunction with the Arizona list. If you look through the pages of their printed catalogue, you'll see some rare treasures -- roses we haven't seen here for a long time, if ever.

https://issuu.com/anjataschner...

I have to laugh at 1.8-2m described as "shoulder height." My shoulder is 1.3 meters above the ground, and I'd have to climb a ladder to reach 2 meters.

I have visited Ludwig's Pretoria on a number of occassions when I have been down to visit my folks in Johannesburg. You are very lucky to be getting them in the States. They are very highly regarded in South Africa!!!

That's good to hear. If they have a good reputation there, they'll be eager to maintain it in this country.

I'm interested in buying some of their own introductions. LUDskysun, which is listed as Amalia Dee on their site and as Amelia Dee on HMF, looks lovely. Forever Busy, Acionna, Figurine Midinette, and Flame Festival are gorgeous, but they aren't listed on HMF under these names or under the denomination codes. That could be another case of typos, I guess.

I tried to order two roses (Fragrant Peace and Naughty Nude) and I managed to place them in my cart and enter my name and address, but when I clicked on the "Pay" link, I received an error message. I called, and the man who answered advised me to order by e-mail instead, so I'm trying that.

Someone named Anja responded to my e-mail, saying I placed my order too early. She said they should be all set up to take orders by the end of this week. She's going to notify me when they're ready. She also said I shouldn't worry about a "bare-root deadline" because their roses are shipped in containers.

Sounds good so far...

do yo think these are the same rose:
http://www.ludwigsroses.co.za/...

and this one
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Thanks in advance for your help

I don't think so, Margie. I've been growing Courtoisie for years and it has never produced any blooms resembling those of Relais & Chateaux. Besides, Relais & Chateaux has a denomination code suggesting that it's not a Delbard rose (LUDclocjoe).

Relais & Chateaux also sounds too good to be true...

Thank you Zuzu for your response. And thank you for informing us about a new source for roses.

I think I may have managed to place an order for four roses: Fragrant Peace, Naughty Nude, South Africa, and Monica. The first two will be new to my garden (unless they have other names that I don't know), the South Africa is for a friend, and the Monica will replace a drippy little own-root Monica from Rogue Valley that's been trying to grow in my garden for years and years and is still only about 10 inches tall.

I have my doubts that the order is correct. For one thing, the date on the invoice is 2/29/16 instead of 3/5/16. For another, they charged me sales tax, but a company in Arizona shouldn't be charging me sales tax, should it? They also charged shipping, but all of the notices of "free 2-day shipping anywhere in the United States" have been removed from the site, so that's fair. Besides, the Fedex shipping for all four roses is only $11.95. so I can't complain.

You're now our "pioneer purchaser" from them.
Make sure you keep us updated on what you get from them...which I know you'll do anyway ! LOL

I am very curious about Ludwig's. I am in the Phoenix area and am anxious to pay them a visit. Looked thru their site this morning and attempted to place an order bc it did say "free shipping". Just kind of interested to see how ordering went. I plugged in my info and I got a message that said no shipping available for your area. Ok, I thought maybe bc I am fairly local. Gave them a call and was told it might be an availability issue and to email them. Just did that. Will be interesting to see the reply.

BTW, local reviews for Ludwig's are glowing.